Councils awarded funding to tackle sticky issue of chewing gum

A grant from the Chewing Gum Task Force, administered by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, will help South Hams and West Devon Councils clean up gum and reduce gum littering. 

The two councils are putting plans in place to remove the chewing gum that blights local streets after receiving a £23,590 grant to tackle the issue. 

The councils are among 52 across the country that have successfully applied to the Chewing Gum Task Force, now in its fourth year, for funds to clean gum off pavements and prevent it from being littered again. 

Established by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, the Chewing Gum Task Force Grant Scheme is open to councils across the UK who wish to clean up gum in their local areas and invest in long-term behaviour change to prevent gum from being dropped in the first place.  

The Task Force is funded by major gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle, with an investment of up to £10 million spread over five years. 

Monitoring and evaluation carried out by Behaviour Change – a not-for-profit social enterprise - has shown that in areas that benefitted from the first and second year of funding, a reduced rate of gum littering of up to 80% was seen in the first two months - with reductions still being observed six months after targeted street cleansing and the installation of specially designed signage to encourage people to bin their gum. 

Cllr Jacqi Hodgson, South Hams Executive Member for Waste, said: “The funding we received last year allowed us to look at the problem of chewing gum on our streets and street clean in several areas.  

“The continued support means we can continue with this work and tackle problem areas. 

“As a local council we can only do so much about the problems of chewing gum on the street, but we hope the public will be more thoughtful in how they dispose of their gum to help the streets stay cleaner.” 

Cllr Christopher West, West Devon Lead Member for climate change and biodiversity, said: “We’re grateful to the Chewing Gum Task Force for this continued support. It’s a positive way for the industry to help solve the littering issue that it creates.” 

Many towns and cities are affected by people dropping chewing gum and we hope that the street cleaning this grant covers will act as a reminder to people that our streets look much nicer without litter like chewing gum.” 

Estimates suggest the annual clean-up cost of chewing gum for councils in the UK is around £7 million and, according to Keep Britain Tidy, around 77 percent of England’s streets and 99 percent of retail sites are stained with gum. 

In its third year the Task Force awarded 54 councils grants worth a total of £1.585 million, helping clean an estimated 500,000m2 of pavements. 

Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, said: “Chewing gum continues to be an unsightly form of litter in our public spaces – though thankfully the scheme is leading to significant reductions. People need to remember that disposing irresponsibly of their gum causes harm to our environment as it takes years to decompose naturally – and, ultimately, costs the public purse to clean it up.”